Product description

Product Description

This dungeon crawler is rooted in the oldest traditions of Western and Japanese role-playing games but has been brought up to date with modern graphics and controls. The result is a game of great detail with highly customisable characters and unique mapping capabilities. Etrian Odyssey is a welcome relief from uninspired bigger-name titles and illustrates what a wide variety of games are available on the DS.

Top customer reviews

Make no mistake, this game is not for the casual gamer. You won't beat it in 20 or 50 hours of game-play and at times it's as if the game itself thinks, you know what he hasn't died in the last couple of hours so we better take care of that. However this masterpiece of retro goodness was never meant to appeal to anybody but a select group, it's a hardcore dungeon crawler and believe me the dungeons in this game are crawling with monsters and a unique twist.

Back in ye olde days of dungeon crawlers a player needed not only saint like patience but also graph paper, Etrian Odyyssey has eliminated the need for graph paper to make maps and lets the player map out the dungeon with the DS stylus. Mapping is essential to progress in the game and feels rewarding when you have mapped a new floor. I think this also adds to the feel of exploration.

Your ultimate goal is to reach the bottom of the labyrinth. You'll start by assembling a guild/party of 5 heroes and have a choice of races/classes to choose form with upgraded version to unlock later in the game. The story takes a back seat as exploration is the name of this game and your heroes are all classic silent types so the emphasis is on you the player to make up a back story.

The inventory/equipment screens are a little on the frustrating side (a problem that's fixed in the second game) and the difficulty of this game is legendary and you will spend a good amount of time leveling up and the FOE'S large enemies that appear on the map can and will kill you very quickly if your not of a high enough level.

But for me it's the challenge of this game combined with it's longevity that sees me coming back. People say games have become more casual or are not as tough as they used to be well I'm hear to tell you the Etryian Odyssey series dispels that myth. You will die and then die then die again, leave it for an hour come back and then come close but still die and then after you've tweaked your party or levelled up you'll do it and the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment is something that you won't experience in a lot of other games. This is a game that you get out what you put in.

I've had Etrian Odyssey about a year now on US import. I have to confess to loving the game. Essentially the game is a first person RPG with random turn-based combat ala Final Fantasy / Dragon Quest. At its heart it is very traditional, you move through dungeons returning to town to heal and buy new goods. You control a team of five characters chosen from up to eight classes. These vary from the standard swordsman and mage to the more interesting Ronin and Hexer.

The game, however, is played from a first-person perspective moving a square at a time like an old fashioned Hero Quest adventure. Though the game controls seem restrictive, they are essential to understanding what makes Etrian Odyssey - you move a square at a time because you have to draw all the maps yourself on the touch screen. This is not only essential to finding your way around increasingly convoluted mazes, but is often required to complete missions.

Designed by the same team behind Trauma Centre, this game also has a quite lovely retro look (you might recognise a couple of characters too). On the downside there is no plot and very little pretence at one either.

This game will appeal most to those who remember spending days playing RPGs on the NES / SNES, relying on relentless level grinding, punishing difficulty, drawing your own maps on graph paper, and turn based combat. Those who do can expect 50 hours + of retro RPG joy. Etrian Odyssey does not hold your hand and makes no apologies for what it is. As a result it is only ever going to have a small audience, but thank the gods for that.

i just bought etrian odyssey for ds. I am a big fan of JRPGs and have quite a few in my collection on all gaming platforms.

This is a real hardcore rpg as it is quite difficult and challenging. It is turn based. Dont want to spoil the game by telling a lot about it as in my view many reviewers spoil the fun by telling about each and every part of the game.

In short, real good rpg for those who want a challenge especially those who enjoy snes type of old school rpgs.

It is a big game around 100 hours or more if u take on optional quests as well, only downside for me is that the game hasnt got a in game clock so one cant tell exactly how much game time one has consumed.

brilliant gameI played the etrian odyssey untold the millennium girl demo and i liked it so im starting from the beginning. I,ve spend many many hours on it already, I like battle and moving around the forest. It may take a while to get strong at first (that makes me wanna play more and more) but when you finally get pass the 1st part it feels good. I like the music, the graphics are good (it did come out long ago so its fine).I would recommended to RPG fans. im gonna continue to enjoy this game and buy all the other Etrian Odyssey games.

Some games are what you might call slow burners, none more so than this absolute gem. I've been playing the same campaign for 4 years off and on, hundreds of hours and I can't stop coming back to it. I look forward to playing #2 when I finally get to the end, if I ever do, because make no mistake this is a HUGE undertaking. Its a frustrating, unforgiving and punishing task but Oh, the satisfaction when you get past that end of strata boss. Think Dungeon Master meets Dark Souls. For all its 16bit static game art and slightly clunky controls, this is one of the most atmospheric and enthralling games I have ever played and is a defining title in my 3 decades of being a gamer.

The game is extremely boring, you spend absolutely ages killing the same monsters over and over to move on a little. There are some nice ideas in the game but it it is spoilt by this and being very difficult. The game is also balanced poorly, the classes are balanced poorly, and there is very little replayability as the game is almost impossible if you don't use certain classes. Waste of time playing this in my opinion.